Ouya software sales figures revealed

A bevy of indie developers have spoken out regarding their sales figures on the recently released Android console Ouya. Sales figures run the gamut and tend to be on the small side, but most developers seemed to have set their sights low and were reasonably pleased with the results.

Towerfall, perhaps the most high profile Ouya-exclusive thus far, has surpassed developer Matt Thorson's expectations. "We've made about 2000 sales so far at $15 each," he said in comment to Edge. "A lot of high profile people in games have been praising the game, which is of course fantastic, and there's been a lot of talk among gamers as well. Launching on Ouya got me a lot of attention, and the sales have been better than expected."

According to Shay Pierce, the developer behind the Ouya port of Bennett Foddy's Get on Top, Ouya takes a 30 per cent cut from the developer, meaning Thorson made about $21K off TowerFall thus far. It's not surprise then that he's bringing it to PC in the near future.

As for Pierce's Get on Top port, he told Gamasutra that he had about 9700 unique downloads and 520 sales, earning $728 to date after Ouya's 30 per cent cut.

Hidden in Plain Sight developer Adam Sprag said his pay-what-you-want local multiplayer game has sold 1,900 units at around 40 per day. "My gross sales are $4,381, which indicates an average price of a little over $2," he noted to Gamasutra of his game that costs a minimum $1. "Although I didn't know what to expect, I'm happy with the sales numbers. I think they are better than I'd hoped for."

Organ Trail developer Ryan Wiemeyer was less keen on Ouya, however. He told Gamasutra that he only sold 501 copies on Ouya out of over 14,000 total. " I don't even know if it was worth the man hours yet," he said. "Then again... Organ Trail was a pain to add controller support to and that was the bulk of the port."

Bombball developer E McNeill, was likewise disappointed by the sales, noting that he only made about $30 a day off the game before Ouya's cut. Going by what Pierce said about the thirty per cent tax, that's only about $21 a day. "I let my expectations get inflated over time, and now I'm a little disappointed with the sales," he said in the Gamasutra piece.

Nimble Quest wasn't hugely profitable, raking in only $427 after its first week where it saw 6508 downloads and 122 purchases, but developer NimbleBit's David Marsh told Edge that he was glad to have done it anyway as "it was pretty much a snap to port it" on Unity.

"I would wholeheartedly recommend the Ouya to indie devs that have an existing pipeline to Android and are interested in what the Ouya does," he said. "It's probably not going to be a huge source of income compared to other platforms, but it's dead easy to submit a game and get it into the store. It's the only console right now with a truly open store, which makes it interesting and worth supporting if you want to see more open platforms."

"It's also a great device to have just to check out all sorts of neat experimental multiplayer games that are already popping up," Marsh concluded. "I think it's a step in the right direction."